Andrew Jordan and the Pirtek Racing team kicked off their 2010 British Touring Car Championship campaign yesterday showing great potential in the car at the high-speed Thruxton circuit in Hampshire. The first race of the day saw Jordan run within the top ten before a racing collision pushed him down the order, in race two a punctured tyre whilst running in fifth ruined the team’s chance of a good points haul.
Jordan started the weekend well, qualifying fourth overall and second in the Independent category during Saturday’s session. The 20 year old from Staffordshire was never out of the top six during the session and left his final and quickest run right until the end, pulling out a storming lap when few were improving on track in the tricky, changeable conditions.
Starting from the second row of the grid for race one, Jordan was fighting hard into the first corner before the fast starting Jason Plato and Tom Onslow-Cole narrowly moved ahead of the Pirtek Car. Whilst challenging to regain position Jordan lost out to Matt Jackson in the Airwaves BMW, pushing him down to seventh. The following laps saw a close fight for fourth place with Jordan continually challenging Jackson. On lap seven Jackson moved past fifth place Onslow-Cole leaving a gap for Jordan to capitalise on, however Onslow-Cole made contact with Jordan causing damage to the Vectra. After a pit stop to change flat-spotted tyres, he rejoined towards the back of the pack, crossing the line in 14th place.
With the finishing order of race one determining the grid for race two, Jordan lined up 14th alongside ex-VX Racing team mate Matt Neal. The first corner saw Jordan move quickly up the order and by the end of the first lap he was up four places to tenth. Jordan then proceeded to pass the Vectra’s of David Pinkney and Phil Glew in succession before passing a further two cars to move up to fifth place. With only two laps to run Jordan and Neal, who were running in tandem, were the two fastest cars on track before a front left puncture ended Jordan’s superb run from 14th to fifth.
The final race of the day was almost over before it began for the Pirtek Racing team after suffering an engine misfire on the installation lap. The team, who are one of the first to run the TOCA Next Generation Touring Car engine, started the race from the back of the grid, but Jordan pushed hard to make up two places during the opening lap. A couple of laps later Jordan pitted, radioing that the engine was down in power, he rejoined in 17th making progress up to 14th at the flag.
Jordan commented on the races, “Today is one of those days where you really have to focus on the positives. We were so strong all weekend, the speed was there and the team worked exceptionally well, it’s just disappointing we didn’t achieve the results to reflect our potential.
“Thruxton is notorious for tyre wear but our issue in the second race was a puncture which was seemingly caused by debris on the track and not by excessive wearing, which is frustrating because I feel we could have been on for a podium. The engine issue we had at the start of the final race was caused by a loose wire in the turbo, which really put us on the back foot, again we could’ve had a strong points result because we were consistently the fastest car on track each lap after our stop.
“The package has shown it is very quick and we’re confident that we are a front running team, we will aim to secure three solid points results at Rockingham to really kick off our championship campaign from there.”
The next round of the 2010 BTCC series takes place at the Rockingham Circuit in Corby on the 24/25 April.
